Nuclear Industry Plays Defense

March 17th, 2011 | Bulldog Blog | | Leave a comment

The lobbyists from the nuclear industry are trying to counter the public reaction to the nuclear disaster in Japan. The old line Nuclear Energy Institute and aggressive companies allied with the Obama White House are trying to tout the claim that nuclear reactors are environmentally friendly compared to such C02 laden fuels like coal. Read more at the Washington Post website.
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Has the MOX Fuel Reactor Been Breached?

March 16th, 2011 | Natural Resources News Service | | One comment
Japan Daiichi Reactor 3. Photo: DigitalGlobe.
Japan Daiichi Reactor 3. Photo: DigitalGlobe.
The plutonium-based mixed-oxide-fueled number three reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant may have a break in its containment vessel, according to the Japanese government. If the reactor containment has been breached and the radioactive steam emerging from the plant is from the number three reactor core, it could mean that plutonium particles are being spread in the air over Japan.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano first told a press conference that smoke was seen Wednesday morning around the No.3 reactor. Later government spokesmen said they thought the chance the reactor had been breached was low and the steam may have been coming from the spent fuel pool on the roof of the damaged reactor. Edano said, ”As we saw in the No. 2 unit, steam has been released from the [No. 3] reactor’s containment vessel.”

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MOX fuel rods used in Japanese Nuclear Reactor present multiple dangers

March 15th, 2011 | Natural Resources News Service | | 3 comments
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Okuma Photo: DigitalGlobe’s Firstwatch Imagery Report
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Okuma Photo: DigitalGlobe’s Firstwatch Imagery Report

The mixed oxide fuel rods used in the compromised number three reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi complex contain enough plutonium to threaten public health with the possibility of inhalation of airborne plutonium particles. The compromised fuel rods supplied to the Tokyo Electric Company by the French firm AREVA.

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Fission Criticality In Cooling Ponds Threaten Explosion At Fukushima

March 14th, 2011 | Natural Resources News Service | | One comment
Photo: DigitalGlobe’s Natural Color Satellite Image
Photo: DigitalGlobe’s Natural Color Satellite Image

The threat of a fission explosion at the Fukushima power facility emerged today when the roof of the number three reactor exploded and fears that a spent fuel pool, located over the reactor, has been compromised.  The pool,  designed to allow reactor fuel to cool off for several years, was constructed on top of the Fukushima reactors instead of underground. As of 2010, there were 3450 fuel assemblies in the pool at the number three reactor. The destruction of the number three reactor building has experts concerned about whether the spent fuel storage pool, which sits just below the roof, could have survived intact the hydrogen explosion. The explosion was much more severe than Saturday’s blast at the number one reactor.

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